Information Minister Says… “I Won’t Be Distracted”

In an exclusive interview last night, the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Bangura said that, his main focus at the moment is “to roll out” the achievements of the current administration in the transformation of the country.

“This government has made significant improvements in the health, education, energy, social protection and water and governance sectors since we came into office in 2007”, Mr. Bangura said.

According to the Information Minister, “These are the issues we want to talk about…Some people, who have nothing to offer to the people, have resorted to personal attacks…They are doing so in order to divert our attention from talking about the progress we have made as a country since the APC Party under His Excellency President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma came into office in 2007”, Mr. Bangura noted.

The Information Minister called for a broad-based discussion on national issues. “They want to narrow down the debate on national issues to personal attacks…That is not what the people of Sierra Leone want to hear…What the people of Sierra Leone want to hear is; what have you done or what are you offering as an alternative to what we have done in government in the past nine years”, he said.

The Information Minister noted that, as a senior Politician, he expects people to criticize him. “In a democracy people are free to express themselves in a responsible way as long as they do not stop other people from expressing their views on national issues”, he said

Mr. Bangura said that, from now on to the time the next elections are expected to be held in March 2018, “This government will be talking about the progress we have made since 2007…We will be talking about the free health care, the number of hospitals we are building, the number of schools we are building, the number of doctors and nurses we have employed and the infrastructural development that is taking place across the country since we came to power in 2007”, he said..

“As I said last week, the 2018 elections will be about issues and not about personalities”, Mr. Bangura concluded.